US House passes bill that could ban TikTok nationwide

Speaking ahead of the vote, Hakeem Jeffries – the top Democrat in the House – welcomed the bill, saying it would decrease “the likelihood that TikTok user data is exploited and privacy undermined by a hostile foreign adversary”.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would now review the legislation.

Its prospects in the upper chamber of Congress are unclear in the wake of Republican White House candidate Donald Trump speaking out against the bill.

The former president, who tried to ban the app during his term in office, changed his position after a recent meeting with Republican donor Jeff Yass, who reportedly owns a minor stake in ByteDance.

Mr Trump’s opposition was echoed by some House members on Wednesday. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, wrote on social media that the bill could allow Congress to force the sale of other corporations by claiming to be protecting US data from foreign adversaries.

Some Democrats are also opposed to a ban, fearing it could alienate the app’s youthful userbase as the party struggles to retain its hold over younger voters.

But the leaders of the Senate intelligence committee welcomed the House vote. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, said they were determined to shepherd the bill through the chamber.

“We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok – a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party,” they said in a statement.

After the vote, TikTok appeared to renew its push to have users lobby Congress, sending another notification urging them to contact their representatives. A similar move last week saw congressional offices bombarded with calls, a move that some staffers told the BBC had hardened opposition to the company.

Outside the White House on Wednesday a handful of supporters gathered to protest against the bill. Tiffany Yu, a young disability advocate from Los Angeles, told the BBC the platform was vital to her work.

“Fifteen years ago I only dreamed of reaching 30 to 40 people,” she says. Now, she has millions. Another demonstrator, Ophelia Nichols, highlighted the bill’s negative impact on US businesses.

“Shame on them, at the House,” she said.

Content creator Mona Swain, 23, said her earnings from the app were paying her mother’s mortgage and for her siblings’ college educations.

“To be put out of work at such a crazy time in my life and just in a lot of other creators’ lives, it’s really, really scary right now,” Ms Swain told Reuters news agency.

The Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson said: “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok.

“This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order.”

But White House Spokesperson Karine Jean Pierre insisted that the bill merely sought to ensure that ownership of major technology platforms operating in the US “wouldn’t be in the hands of those who can exploit them”.

Even if ByteDance does secure approval to sell its stake in TikTok, it is unclear whether any of its competitors have the funding to launch a bid for the platform. The company has previously valued the app at around $268bn. The price tag could scare off some investors.

But analysts told the BBC there would be plenty of potential buyers in the US. What deal might ultimately succeed is another question, given the cost and anti-monopoly concerns weighing on the tech sector.

“All the big social media companies would be interested but I think they would face a lot of anti-trust hurdles… There are other firms in the social media space that are smaller like Snapchat that would be interested but wouldn’t be able to afford it,” Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg told the BBC.

When the Trump administration ordered a sale in 2020, some of the biggest firms in the US emerged to explore bids, which then reportedly valued the firm at about $50bn.

Microsoft ultimately lost out to a team that included Walmart and software giant Oracle, led by Larry Ellison and Safra Catz, who had ties with the Trump administration. The deal fell apart amid legal challenges and the change-over to a new administration.

Today, TikTok’s reach and advertising revenue have increased significantly. Research firm Emarketer estimates TikTok will bring in about $8.66bn in ad revenue from the US this year, compared with less than $1bn in 2020.